Entertainment
Marta Kauffman, co-creator of ‘Friends,’ ’embarrassed’ now by its lack of diversity
“Admitting and accepting guilt just isn’t straightforward,” Kaufman mentioned. “It is painful taking a look at your self within the mirror. I am embarrassed that I did not know higher 25 years in the past.”
“Pals,” which ran from 1994 – 2004, starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. It had been criticized for a scarcity of longstanding characters of coloration.
“Perhaps there needs to be an all-Black ‘Pals’ or an all-Asian ‘Pals,’” mentioned Schwimmer, who performed Ross for 10 seasons. “However I used to be effectively conscious of the shortage of range and I campaigned for years to have Ross date girls of coloration. One of many first girlfriends I had on the present was an Asian-American lady, and later I dated African-American girls. That was a really acutely aware push on my half.”
That did not go over effectively with some who identified that the all-Black forged comedy “Dwelling Single” aired from 1993 to 1998 (predating “Pals” by a 12 months”) and, like “Pals,” centered on six younger adults and their intertwined lives in New York Metropolis.
Kauffman, who created “Pals” with David Crane, advised the LA Instances that she got here to higher perceive systemic racism within the US after the George Floyd homicide and consequently the complaints in regards to the present.
That helped inspire her to pledge $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis College in Boston, for the institution of an endowed professorship within the faculty’s African and African American research division.
Because the endowment was introduced, Kauffman mentioned she’s “gotten nothing however love.”
“It has been superb. It shocked me to some extent, as a result of I did not anticipate the information to go this huge,” she mentioned. “I’ve gotten a flood of emails and texts and posts which were nothing however supportive. I’ve gotten plenty of ‘It is about time.’ Not in a imply approach. It is simply folks acknowledging it was lengthy overdue.”